November 1, 2016

Malay NGO gives cops 24-page document on Bersih foreign funding

Malay rights group Jaringan Melayu Malaysia (JMM) today submitted 24 pages of confidential information to the police on foreign funds allegedly given to electoral group Bersih 2.0 to topple the Barisan Nasional government.

JMM president Datuk Azwanddin Hamzah claimed the documents connected US financier George Soros and Malaysian John Pang to Bersih 2.0 via the billionaire’s Open Society Foundation.

“They have had bad intention to collaborate in toppling the government, as well as the prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak,” he said after lodging a police report at Dang Wangi district police headquarters.

“In the proof that we have given to the police, it has the communication between the two, the planning and the fund that was channelled into the country,” he said.

He added that the police report was specifically to seek investigations against Pang, whom he claimed to be on the board of the OSF and a key member of Bersih 2.0.

He also said JMM will send a list containing the names of 30 Bersih leaders to the Inland Revenue Board to be investigated, but did not state why they should be investigated beyond the fulfilment of their tax obligations.

Earlier, Umno Youth exco member Ibdilillah Ishak also lodged a police report on the matter, urging the authorities to investigate the authenticity of the leaked document.

Earlier today, it was reported that police have set up a special task force to check the authenticity of leaked minutes purportedly from an OSF meeting that detailed its efforts to intervene in Malaysian politics.

Among the attendees at the meeting on OSF’s Malaysia Programme, which ostensibly supports free and fair elections, were Merdeka Center director Ibrahim Suffian, who told Malay Mail that there was no hint the meeting was about meddling in Malaysia’s internal politics.

The document reportedly said news portal Malaysiakini’s video arm KiniTV had also received funding from the Malaysia Programme.

Malaysiakini said that the grant was used to produce the Realiti Sarawak and Sekilas Bumi Kenyalang programmes and that it only constituted a small portion of its revenue while Bersih 2.0 chairman Maria Chin Abdullah said the organisation has not received any money from OSF since mid-2011 onwards.